Of Paperclips and Busy Minds (and Busy Hands)
by aqaws321
Summary: There's a large bowl of paperclips in all of the briefing rooms at the Phoenix foundation- ever wonder why? Riley asks a question and Jack answers while MacGyver sleeps. *Now with chapter 2* (My Thanksgiving fic 2k16. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)
1. Chapter 1

**There's a large bowl of paperclips in whatever room the team is always briefed in. I was wondering why (and, honestly, being a bit annoyed by it, because they always have Mac do that thing with the paperclip every single episode), but then I realized that there might actually be a good reason for it.**

 **Or at least good material for a story.**

 **This is set when MacGyver is around 19. He and Jack have been working together for a few months. I feel like MacGyver found some way to join the army early** , **because that's about the only way he could have done everything he has and also be as young as they imply in the show. Maybe some kind of special program? In my world, he worked with the army until he was around eighteen and a half, then, when Pena died, he was given leave for psychological trauma after his last encounter with the Ghost. (I realize that this might not be how the army works, but please don't get mad at me for inaccuracies. I would love it if someone who was knowledgeable felt inclined to correct me.)**

 **After he left the army he was immediately recruited into the DXS to work there and was assigned Jack, who had just quit the CIA (the Ghost mission was his last mission for them) as his partner.**

* * *

Riley rested her chin on her hand and watched MacGyver doze in a chair, his feet resting on the tabletop. The man was obviously exhausted from their last mission, and apparently too tired to stay awake until Thornton arrived to debrief the team.

Bored, the girl let her eyes wander around the room. Her gaze came to rest on the large bowl of paperclips that had been present in every briefing room of the Phoenix Foundation that she had seen so far. With nothing else to do, she turned to Jack. The man was frowning at his phone and tapping on it, grunting in frustration every so often.

Riley let him continue for a moment, then spoke. "Hey, Jack."

The man looked up at her. "Yeah?"

The girl pointed to the bowl of paperclips. "I keep seeing those around the briefing rooms. What're they for?"

Jack grinned, the corners of his eyes creasing as he remembered something funny. "Well, Riley, sit on back and I'll tell you a story that begins with our good friend MacGyver here."

* * *

When Jack first began working with MacGyver, he noticed a habit the kid had. One might even call it a nervous tic, except the kid did it even when he was calm. No matter where he was, the kid couldn't sit still. Some part of him always had to be moving. This rarely caused an issue. Rarely, however, wasn't the same as never.

The woman that normally debriefed the pair, Patricia Thornton, was out sick. As a result, they had a different agent, one who wasn't nearly as patient with the teen as Thornton normally was. While Thornton would normally let the kid bounce a ball or something while he talked, this man- Jenks- had confiscated the rubber ball as soon as he had walked in the door.

MacGyver had shot a mournful look at Jack, who had only shrugged. There wasn't really that much that the older man could do. Sighing through his nose, the blond had settled back in his chair.

Jenks looked slightly less disapproving than he had when he walked in.

After about five minutes, though, the kid's leg had started bouncing. The movement had started out small, nothing more than a slight shake of the leg, but now it was bouncing like crazy. Jack was having trouble not laughing while he watched it. He kept quiet, though, hoping that Jenks wouldn't notice and his partner wouldn't get in trouble.

Luck wasn't on MacGyver's side, however,and it only took Jenks another minute or two to notice. When he did, the annoyed expression on his face grew fierce. "If you don't stop, agent, I'll handcuff you to the table."

Jack knew Jenks. The man would follow up on his word. The brunet shot a glance at his partner, trying to catch his attention. When he had it, he mouthed, "Be careful."

MacGyver nodded, his gaze more mournful than ever. It was like watching a puppy being kicked and not being able to do anything about it.

After another few minutes- maybe ten; Jack was impressed- MacGyver's fingers started to tap on his leg. He did his best to keep still, but couldn't stop fidgeting. When Jenks started to look up, Jack kicked the kid in the ankle, warning him to stop.

Jenks caught the end of the movement out of his eye, though, and his gaze hardened. He stood up, went over to the door, and spoke to someone walking outside. The next moment, he was back at the table carrying a pair of handcuffs. They weren't normal handcuffs, however, they were the heavy-duty ones that were reserved for high-profile criminals. Jenks held them up as he walked towards MacGyver. "These were all we had. I warned you."

Jack stood up, a frown marring his face. "Now hold on just a minute-"

He was cut off by Jenks. "Unless you want to find yourself handcuffed to the table as well, Agent Dalton, I suggest you sit down and keep quiet."

Jack, furious, sat down again, knowing that he wouldn't be of any help to the kid if he was also handcuffed to the table. He could only watch as Jenks made MacGyver stretch out his arms to have them cuffed to the center of the table. Given that MacGyver still had some growing to do, as well as the way the cuffs were made and the fact that the table in itself was designed to keep a prisoner off guard when cuffed to it, the kid's chest ended up pressed against the surface of the table in a very uncomfortable way that, given the way he was grimacing, was extremely uncomfortable on MacGyver's ribs.

Jack felt furious but reluctantly kept quiet. The debriefing continued, with Jenks wearing a smug expression the entire time. It made Jack want to punch him.

After the debriefing had concluded, Jenks walked over to MacGyver. He put his hand on the kid's shoulder in a way that looked normal but made the younger man try to squirm away. Jack felt his blood boil as he realized that the other man was pushing down purposely on the teen's shoulder, a cruel movement that only caused the kid more pain in addition to the discomfort that he already had to be feeling from his ribs. Jenks spoke, his infuriatingly smug expression still firmly in place. "I hope you've learned that you should pay attention during debriefings, Agent MacGyver?"

The kid's face was flushed red with embarrassment as he answered, "Yes, sir."

Jenks nodded. "Good."

He reached over and unlocked the cuffs, taking them with him as he exited the room. MacGyver sat up slowly, rubbing at his wrists. Jack didn't say anything, knowing that it would only add to his partner's embarrassment. Together, the two exited the room a few minutes after Jenks.

The next time that they were being debriefed from a mission, Jack was frustrated to see Jenks in the room waiting for them. Once the man saw MacGyver he flicked a meaningful gaze towards a pair of handcuffs that were resting on the table by him. Jack felt some of the energy leach out of the young man beside him, and he felt an unprecedented surge of protective anger.

As they sat, Jack palmed a paperclip from the top of a nearby sheaf of papers, handing it underneath the table to MacGyver. The teen's eyes flicked over to his partner in surprise, but he was careful to show no hint of his shock on his face.

Jenks looked a bit disappointed that he didn't have a chance to reprimand the younger man during the debriefing, and barely acknowledged MacGyver unless he was asking the kid a question.

When the two partners had left the debriefing room behind, MacGyver glanced up at Jack. "Thanks."

Jack shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I used to have trouble sitting still myself when I was your age. Now I'm old and glad when I get a chance to sit down and do nothing for a while."

Jack was rewarded for his joke by the bright grin that lit up the younger man's face. The teen was already putting the matter out of his mind, but Jack resolved to talk to Thornton about the behavior of some of the agents. He knew she wasn't the director of the DXS (yet, it was common-yet-unspoken knowledge that she was being groomed for the position), but he also knew that she had some serious power in the agency. She could easily pull a few strings and make sure nothing like that ever happened again- to Mac, or to any other agent with as much trouble sitting still as he did, because Jack knew that there had to be at least a few.

* * *

Jack leaned back in his chair. "And that, my friend, is why there are bowls of paperclips in every room."

Riley hummed, a thoughtful look on her face. "Interesting."

At that moment the door opened, and Thornton entered the room. She glanced at the still-sleeping MacGyver, then at Jack with a raised eyebrow. Jack shrugged, then poked MacGyver in the side. The blond awoke with a start, his hand going to his side. Jack pointed his thumb at Thornton, who was sitting down and gathering some papers before her. MacGyver quickly took his feet off the table and sat up, mouthing something at Jack. As the older woman began to speak, Riley watched as MacGyver's hand reached out and grabbed a paperclip and began to absently play with it. As she returned her gaze to the woman before her, she noticed a slight smile on the face of one Jack Dalton.

* * *

 **Jack was playing Flappy Bird*. MacGyver made him get the game when it was all the rage, but Jack never played it until he was very bored on a long stakeout. Now he's semi-addicted and plays it whenever he's waiting to be briefed or debriefed.**

 ***For those who've never played, the game Flappy Bird was very big in the USA (and possibly other parts of the world?) around two years ago and reached its peak around early January of 2014. The game was deleted from both the Apple and Google app stores in February of that year. The game was wildly addictive, with many people becoming obsessed. For more information, visit the Wikipedia page for Flappy Bird.**

 **I figured that Jack would be the type to play a game like that every once in a while when he had nothing else to do, but would be able to resist becoming obsessed with it. He seems like a man who more is focused on other, real life, things.**

 **Also, Jenks was fired. Jack made a private complaint to HR and in the investigation that followed it turned out that Jenks had been abusing his power in the same way among other younger agents, not just MacGyver, and he was led (dragged) out of the building by security. He currently works as a cashier in a local fast food restaurant. Many agents delight in going there every once in a while to give him needlessly complicated orders.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Jack remembers the other half of the story, the part he didn't tell Riley.**

* * *

As Jack watched his partner chatter with Riley as they gathered their things as they prepared to leave the debriefing room, he let his mind think back to the other half of the story, the part he hadn't told Riley.

Jack felt a glimmer of frustration. Now that Patricia was so high in the DXS, she as been needed to help deal with an uncooperative new president. As a result, he and MacGyver has been assigned a new agent to debrief them, if only until Thornton had the time again.

The agent was Jenks.

Ever since Jenks had gotten away with handcuffing MacGyver to a table during a debriefing just because the kid couldn't sit still, he had been enforcing more and more ridiculous rules on the kid every time he debriefed them. It had started out small. The blond couldn't stand up or move around. It gradually progressed to larger and harsher things, such as MacGyver couldn't speak unless he was spoken to, or bring food into the debrief.

This last one was especially cruel in Jack's eyes, as the kid was still, well, a kid. He was still growing, and he was a teenage boy, and after some of their missions where they hadn't had the chance to eat for a while, MacGyver was literally starving. To make matters worse, Jenks had shown no objection to Jack bringing food, and the agent himself would even sometimes bring food to the debriefings and eat it front of MacGyver.

Jack had made a complaint to HR, but had been met with the response that, "Technically, he's allowed to set rules in the debriefing. Basically," and here the sympathetic agent had looked Jack in the eyes to drive her point home, "We can't do anything unless he does something completely unethical and there is proof and two witnesses other than the person lodging the complaint."

Jack had spent the rest of the day fuming as he remembered the way MacGyver's stomach had growled through their last debriefing as Jenks had consumed a particularly fragrant turkey sandwich in front of him.

To make matters worse, if MacGyver didn't follow the rules that Jenks set during the debriefings, he would be handcuffed to the table. It only took two missions for Jack and the kid to catch on. Unfortunately, the last of those times had happened after a mission where MacGyver took some pretty severe hits to his ribs and found later that they were cracked. Being handcuffed to the table had put him in some pretty severe pain, and he had barely been able to focus and give his report on what had happened during the mission.

Jack had barely been able to restrain himself from actually hitting Jenks; he was only stopped by the thought that Jenks would find some way to take that out on the kid as well.

It was after a particularly long mission where both Jack and MacGyver hadn't slept in thirty-six hours when Jack finally snapped.

They were waiting in the room, Jack watching the door as MacGyver drifted in and out of a light doze, when Jenks threw the door open with a loud bang. MacGyver, taken by surprise, tumbled out of his seat and ended up sprawled on the floor. Jack would've laughed at the startled expression on the kid's face had it not been for the situation they were in.

Jenks reached the teen's chair in two angry strides, getting to the kid before Jack could gather himself enough to get out of his chair. He watched as Jenks bent down and roughly hauled MacGyver, who had a panicked look in his eyes, to his feet, hissing, "I've told you not to fall asleep, agent. It's disrespectful to-"

Jack shot out of his chair and interrupted him furiously, shoving him backwards and away from MacGyver. "Get your hands off of him."

Jenks turned to him, a triumphant look in his eyes. "I knew it. Having the two of you in here has just made you more prone to outbursts. Come with me, agent."

Jenks beckoned to MacGyver, who looked at Jack with a pleading look. Jack took a threatening step towards the older man, but Jenks held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. "Do I need to handcuff you to the table, Agent Dalton?"

Jack stopped, suddenly realizing that if the man decided to call for backup, Jack would be the one being taken down and would have his record examined.

That would leave Jenks free to threaten the kid without anyone there to stop him.

Jack froze in his tracks, hating the feeling of helplessness that overwhelmed him. Jenks shot him a triumphant look, then beckoned again to MacGyver, saying impatiently, "I said follow me."

MacGyver followed the senior agent out the door, shooting a look back at Jack. The older man hated the fear he saw sparking in those pale blue eyes.

The door shut with a resounding finality, and Jack, in disbelief, heard the sound of the lock clicking.

Jack impatiently muttered to himself as he looked around the room for something that he could use to pick the lock. "Come on, think. What would Mac do?"

Suddenly, it came to him. The brunet looked up at the lights flickering in the ceiling. The man thanked his lucky stars that the lights were a standard lightbulb with a filament as he remembered a trick that MacGyver had taught him once when they were both bored on a mission.

The man carefully removed the lightbulb from the ceiling while standing on the table, using his shirt to cover his hand. Even with the fabric protecting him, he was slightly burned, but Jack put it out of his mind as he focused on what he was about to do. Carefully, the man smashed the lightbulb on the table, revealing the filament inside. He took the filament from the lightbulb and, after a couple of minutes, succeeded in picking the lock.

The brunet didn't take a moment to celebrate his accomplishment, instead running down the hall and peering into each room in an attempt to find his friend.

When he did find him, it was in one of the interrogation rooms, with the one-sided glass that allowed people outside the room to see the people inside the room, but not the other way around. The fact that the glass was there was the only reason that Jenks didn't see Jack.

Jack was about to burst into the room when he remembered what the agent he had consulted had said. Quickly, he turned and rushed off, finding, to his continuing luck, two agents that he was on friendly terms with walking down the hallway in his direction.

Jack skidded to a stop in front of the two men, who seemed somewhat alarmed by his rapid pace. Jack blurted out, "No time to explain. Follow me, and one of you get your phone camera ready."

With that, the man set back down the hall at a dead sprint, the pounding footsteps of the two men behind him confirming that they were following.

The group reached the room once again, and Jack froze at the sight in front of him.

MacGyver was handcuffed to the table in the same manner as a couple of months before. He was a bit taller than last time, so his chest wasn't stretched quite so uncomfortably on the table, but it was still painful. He was trying to keep his head up to look at Jenks, but was obviously exhausted, as his head began to fall towards the tabletop as his eyes started to droop. Just before the teen's head met the table, however, Jenks slammed his hand down right next to his ear, startling the younger man into awareness.

MacGyver's head snapped up as he flinched away from Jenks, his panicked gaze settling on the agent. The older man set down the pen he was using to write on some papers, an obviously fake expression of disappointment on his face as his spoke. "Come on, Agent, we've talked about this. You need to learn to respect your superiors."

As he spoke, Jenks stood and began to walk around MacGyver. The teen tried to keep the man in his line of sight, but was unable to with the way he was handcuffed to the table. Jenks suddenly grabbed the blond's hair and wrenched his head upright, eliciting a stifled gasp of pain from the younger man. Jenks simply met MacGyver's gaze and raised an eyebrow, waiting to release the teen until he had choked out a, "Yessir."

Jenks watched as the kid's head dropped, MacGyver's chest heaving in panicked breaths. Jack knew, through the haze of his anger, that the kid would've been able to hide them had he not been so tired. The only way Jack was keeping himself from bursting into the room was the fact that he knew that they had to get proof that Jenks was abusing his power.

His restraint shattered the moment the agent that was recording the scene said, "We've got enough."

Jack was in the room before Jenks said another word. He slammed the other man against the wall, saying, "Stay away from him, you-"

Jenks cut him off, saying, "I could get you suspended for-"

Jack punched him and watched in satisfaction as his eyes rolled into his head and his legs crumpled from underneath him. He let the man's body drop carelessly onto the floor, turning from it to check on his partner.

One of the agents had released the kid from his handcuffs while the other had left- to find some security guards, Jack assumed- and the blond was rubbing at his wrists while looking up at Jack in relief. The agent turned from MacGyver and switched places with Jack, bending down to secure Jenks in the handcuffs while Jack tended to his partner.

MacGyver was sitting in the chair, slightly slumped, as he said lowly, "He wouldn't- I was so tired-"

Jack tentatively drew the kid into a hug, muttering, "I know. Don't worry, no one's mad at you."

MacGyver allowed himself to fall into the embrace, and Jack drew back after a moment to find that the kid had almost fallen asleep on his shoulder. Chuckling in relieved amusement, Jack straightened up, tapping the kid lightly on the shoulder. His amusement vanished, however, when the teen startled awake, flinching away from the hand that had awoken him and panic flashing through his eyes as his gaze shot up to Jack.

His expression relaxed the next moment, however, when he realized who woke him. Rubbing at his eyes in a way that made him seem much younger than nineteen, he peered up at Jack. Jack smiled, trying to show no trace of his anger on his face. "C'mon, buddy. I don't think anyone's gonna mind if you crash on the couch in the break room while this mess gets cleaned up."

Together the two men made their way to the aforementioned break room. MacGyver fell onto the couch and was asleep almost instantly, his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth opened slightly as he emitted small, whistling snores that were more cute than annoying.

Jack watched his friend- someone he had begun to realize that he thought of as a brother- sleep for an hour or so, too keyed up to feel his own exhaustion. He glanced up sharply as the door opened, but relaxed when he saw that it was the agent he had complained to.

She smiled as she took a seat by him. She was motherly, and getting on a bit in age, but had been with the DXS for as long as anyone could remember. Quietly, as she gazed at the sleeping teen, she spoke. "I saw what you got. The video and the two witnesses will be enough to get Jenks fired. We can't prosecute him, because this is, after all, a secret agency, but you can bet that his life will be pretty horrible after this. I wouldn't be surprised if he has someone suddenly steal his credit cards and spend all of his money right as his house is suddenly foreclosed on, or something of the sort."

With that and a motherly pat in Jack's hand, the woman rose from the table and gave Jack a quick wink. Then she turned and left, leaving Jack with the relieved knowledge that this wouldn't happen again. Not to MacGyver, or to anyone else.

Jack watched as his friend slept peacefully on the couch, blissfully unaware of the world, and safe in the knowledge that Jack was there.


End file.
